


Take Back the Stars

by thatpocketlint



Category: The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: M/M, Pre-Established Relationship, some little angst, steve comforts him, tony has problems with stars
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-29
Updated: 2014-10-29
Packaged: 2018-02-23 04:00:48
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,257
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2533376
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thatpocketlint/pseuds/thatpocketlint
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>From a prompt about stars on my tumblr by Firebyfire.</p>
<p>Steve really loves the stars. They're a beautiful distraction. Tony hasn't been able to look at them the same since New York. The team goes camping and Tony realizes he can't escape them where there's no city lights.</p>
<p>Or that time Tony freaked out about stars and Steve showed him how to love them again.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Take Back the Stars

For Steve Rogers, the stars were a distraction.

Some nights back in his time, during the war, he would look up at them and imagine he was a million miles away. For a few minutes he was free of the stress and the concerns he had about what tomorrow might bring. He loved to sketch the stars, constellations, create his own and morph them into beautiful pieces. He didn't get to start doing that until after he emerged from the ice, but now he spent whatever time he could really appreciating that he was alive to see those stars still. There was something about them that made him feel secure.

For Tony Stark, the stars were a billion small nightmares.

Tony knew, of course, that there were well over a billion stars. Infinite, even, some would argue. But billion seemed like such a smaller amount than infinite, and Tony needed to imagine there weren't much more than that. Because Tony still remembered being up there. Feeling the cold over take him. Feeling the world slip away, knowing that his last moments would be spent surrounded by darkness and stars. Tony didn't take the time to look at the stars anymore because all they did was remind him how close he'd come to floating through them, lifeless, until he collided with a planet and rotted away.

No one really knew this though. Tony wasn't going to just bring it up in random conversation. Instead he'd made every excuse as to why he thought this camping trip was a bad idea, but in the end everyone had agreed that it definitely wasn't and Tony either had to go along or admit something was wrong.

So here Tony was, sulking in the woods around a camp fire. Except he was quick to insist he wasn't sulking, even if everyone else was really enjoying picking at him for it. The thing was Tony was trying to be a good sport about this. He was trying to suck it up. But he'd forgotten how different the sky was when you got this far away from the city. The stars were so bright, dammit. They were getting closer. They had to be getting closer. There was no way he was imagining that.

"Tony?" Steve's voice was full of worry as Tony shot up from his seat and abruptly walked away from the group. Looks were exchanged around the fire. Steve didn't wait for anyone else to volunteer; he'd find out what was wrong with the man.

It wasn't hard to find Tony. He was a little loud with his footsteps, trying to fight off the panic gripping his chest rather than worrying about being careful or quiet. That suited Steve just fine. He didn't want Tony to hide from him.

Finally he found him. Tony was sitting on a stump breathing as carefully as he could. Steve wasn't sure what was wrong but he was determined to find out. 

"Tony." This time Steve's tone was gentle. He was sure he'd figure this out easy enough. "Do you want to talk about it, or do you want to talk about technology?"

Steve knew Tony pretty well by now. Maybe he'd missed out on the star thing, but that was because even he couldn't know every thing that Tony tried to hide. He'd picked up on some of the minor ones, but he could only be expected to do so much. They'd been together for a whopping three months so Steve felt he had a decent excuse for still learning some of Tony's quirks.

There was a silence between them for a moment, Tony fighting to focus on Steve at his side rather than the stars above. Finally he glanced over, and Steve reached out to give his hand an encouraging squeeze. Tony didn't want to sound stupid, but he'd seen Steve through some of his nightmares, and Steve had definitely been there for a few of Tony's. Steve wouldn't think he was stupid over this.

"There are just... so many stars out here," Tony confided finally. "They're so big and bright. I used to think they were so beautiful, but anymore.. Anymore they're just.."

That was all Steve needed for it to click, and he dropped his head into his free hand with a groan. Come on, how could he not think of that? Without warning he tugged his hand free and wrapped his arm around Tony's shoulders. He decided to forgo space and instead tugged Tony into his lap. He didn't think Tony would really argue, anyway. 

"They're still beautiful," Steve told him firmly. "You're just looking at them the wrong way now. Look, Tony, that cluster there." Steve pointed one finger up to the sky, and watched as Tony hesitantly followed it's direction. "See, the little dipper. When you look at that-"

"I know the constellations," Tony grumbled, a little put off that Steve thought he wouldn't know such a simple thing. Steve didn't let that stop him, though.

"Alright, well what about Puppis there?" Steve continued. This one seemed to get Tony's attention, though he wouldn't admit it was because he'd never seen that one. "And Canis Major."

"When you talk science it really drives me crazy," Tony confessed, turning from the stars to instead place a gentle kiss on Steve's forehead. 

From here in Steve's lap, Tony actually felt a little tall. It was nice. There was something actually quite comforting about surrendering to Steve and his antics, even if at times Tony didn't want to. Steve was learning how to bring him out of his dark places. Tony wanted to be annoyed about it, but rather he found himself loving it. Loving this whole crazy thing they were doing. Loving Steve.

"Stop trying to change the subject, Tony," Steve retorted. Tony didn't miss the fact that he looked a little flushed. "My point is, you're looking at the stars as a whole. You can't do that. Focus on the constellations. Focus on ones that don't even exist."

"Isn't there one called Hydra?" Plan b was of course to try and push Steve away. The super soldier was a little too sturdy for that.

"There is, right up there," Steve replied without missing a beat. 

Silence fell between them for a moment, and then Tony was shoving Steve onto his back and flopping down beside him on the ground. Tony dared to look up at the stars. He decided it was fair to give Steve's hypothesis a shot. Steve wrapped his arm tight around Tony's shoulder, his free hand behind his head, occasionally freeing it to point up at different groups of stars and ask Tony what he thought they looked like.

Gradually Tony began to relax, began to join in. He laughed here and there, pointing out different clusters. He swore one looked like Dum-E, and promptly decided he was going to tell the bot about it. Steve showed Tony his favorites, and promised to show him his art books.

They spent the most of the night there. Eventually Tony fell asleep, and Steve had no qualms with carrying him back to the tent. Once they were curled against the air mattress Steve pressed his lips to the back of Tony's neck, trailing along his shoulder.

For Steve Rogers, the stars were a beautiful thing. For Tony Stark, the stars were.. not so bad.

For Steve Rogers, Tony Stark shone just as brightly as any of those little balls of gas. For Tony Stark, Steve Rogers outshone the sun.

**Author's Note:**

> So there's that! Thanks for reading, comments are always appreciated. Tell me what you liked about it precious angels.


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